


IKEA

by zayniekins



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: IKEA worker!liam, M/M, responsible older brother!zayn, ziam
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-16
Updated: 2015-10-16
Packaged: 2018-04-26 15:22:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5009863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zayniekins/pseuds/zayniekins
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based on prompt: I lost my little sibling in IKEA and I need your help finding them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	IKEA

“Shit!”

Zayn looked around frantically, trying to spot a little girl wearing a pink blouse. The pink was a hot pink, which should mean that it would be hard to miss but unfortunately, he could see nothing beyond the rows of pillows on sale.

God, how did this happen?

All Zayn was told to do by his mother was to go and take his little sister to the food court. Apparently, little Safaa was feeling a little bit famished so Trisha told Zayn (why? Because he had no business going to IKEA, just got dragged -er, brought along) to go to the food court with her and stay there. She told him that the rest of the family would meet up with him there once they finished their shopping in about three hours.

So being the caring older brother he was (Waliyha would laugh at that one), Zayn held Safaa’s hand as they walked through the sections of IKEA, careful not to get lost within the throng of people who were shopping. Well, that was until Saf spotted a purple toy dolphin on a bed of one of those example rooms IKEA had and made a dive for it. That was when Zayn realized that he had lost his grip on her hand and therefore, lost track of his sister.

He also realized that he would lose his life once his mother found out about this.

Which she wasn’t going to because Zayn was going to find little Saf on his own like a responsible person and pretend this never happened.

Of course, Zayn had went in the same direction she did but unlike little Saf, he wasn’t tiny. Well, his skinny build made him look tiny but all in all, he was almost 5 foot seven. After maneuvering past the throng of people, Zayn tried to find his sister but he could not. She wasn’t there in the example room anymore, and she took the toy dolphin with her.

So now, Zayn had to look around for a little girl in a hot pink blouse with a purple toy dolphin. Shouldn’t be hard, right?

Wrong!

Searching high and low, Zayn could not find his sister. It was as if she disappeared off the face of the Earth. He only had an hour left before his family would be looking for them at the food court. Looking around, Zayn tried to find something that seemed familiar or hinted that he had already been there. Unfortunately, everything seemed different to him.

Quite frankly, Zayn believed that he too was lost. It wasn’t often that his family went to IKEA. Whenever they made a trip to the city, the whole family, even with his aunties and uncles and cuzzies, would gather at his house and they would try to pile into two vans. The trips to the city happened only on weekends and not all of them was a trip to IKEA. So, Zayn hadn’t exactly mastered the whole layout of this place and now, he didn’t remember which part of the building he was in or how he got there in the first place.

Gosh, he must have looked suspicious, snooping around and looking into spaces that could fit people. He didn’t want to ask for help, anything but that. But if even he was lost, maybe it was time to ask for assistance.

Zayn looked around, trying to find someone official-looking. He did see a young teen around his age, who was wearing an official IKEA worker uniform and was stacking up rolled up carpets on one of the wooden platforms. Seeing no one else, Zayn approached him.

“Hi,” he greeted the person. The person must have been so into his work that he didn’t realize Zayn was there and was visibly startled by his greeting. He was so startled that he accidentally knocked down one of the stacks of the rolled up carpets. The carpets rolled onto the floor and Zayn cringed at the sight.

Yikes, that must have taken a lot of time.

Zayn heard the teen curse as he dropped onto his knees to repair the damage. The raven-haired teen felt bad because it was partially his fault so he also dropped to his knees to help.

“It’s okay, you do not- no, should not even be doing this,” the other teen protested as Zayn helped him. Zayn ignored him, gathering as many carpets as he could. He helped the other teen stack them back up and soon, it was as good as new.

The other teen turned to him. “Thanks, lad,” he said, gratefully. “If I were to do this alone, it would have taken twice the amount of time.”

Zayn scratched the back of his neck, bashfully.

“T'was my fault that the carpets fell,” he said, apologetically. The other teen smiled broadly, revealing his pearly whites and causing crinkles to appear by his warm brown eyes.

“It’s alright because you helped me fix it,” he held out his hand. “Name’s Liam.”

“Uh, Zayn,” Zayn grasped Liam’s hand and gave it a shake. Liam’s hand was much bigger than Zayn’s. His palm felt rougher than Zayn’s but it was a nice feeling. “Listen, I was wondering if you could help me out.”

Liam smiled kindly at him, “Of course, mate. Whatever do you need?”

Zayn gave Liam an embarrassed smile. “Uh, I kind of lost my sister and I need help finding her.” He chewed on his bottom lip as he contemplated his next line. Liam looked at him as if he sensed that Zayn had more to say.

“AndIamalsokindoflosttoo,” Zayn added quickly and waited for Liam to either laugh at him or ask him to repeat the sentence. Liam must have keen ears because he seemed to understand and he gave Zayn a pat on the shoulder.

“It’s alright, mate,” he said, not teasing Zayn like the raven-haired boy thought he would. “I get lost here all the time. Boy, you should have seen me when I first started out. Right mess, I was.”

Zayn cracked a smile, relieved that Liam wasn’t poking fun at him and seemed pretty friendly. Liam slung an arm around Zayn’s shoulder and started walking, dragging Zayn along with him as he headed in a random direction.

“Could you tell me more about your sister and where you lost her?” Liam asked, looking around. 

“She was wearing a bright pink shirt and she is holding a purple dolphin,” Zayn answered. “I lost her somewhere along those example rooms near the bedroom area.” Liam let out an ‘aha’ and steered them somewhere else. Zayn wasn’t expecting the abrupt turn and he almost tripped on his own two feet. 

He cursed his smaller-than-Liam stature now. 

Zayn and Liam kept searching, working as a unit. With Liam by his side, Zayn did not get lost and he did feel a tad bit safer. When he was searching on his own, he had spotted a few security guards that had eyed him suspiciously. Probably expecting him to steal something. 

However, with Liam by his side, no one gave him another glance.

“There!” Liam hauled Zayn to the right and the smaller boy yelped. He was about to tell Liam off when he saw a little girl sitting on a chair looking quite frightened. The little girl’s eyes brightened when they landed on Zayn and she shot up out of her chair.

“Zee!” She jumped into his arms. 

“God, Safaa,” Zayn breathed out relieved. “Do not do that again.”

Safaa shoved the purple toy dolphin that was the cause of the problem in his face. “Do you think Baba will let me buy this?”

Zayn shrugged and said in a joking tone, “He better because this little thing has caused so much trouble.” Safaa laughed at that and he felt somewhat better that he had managed to find his sister. Technically, Liam did.

“Thanks, Liam,” Zayn said, gratefully. Liam grinned. 

“It’s no problem,” he replied. Safaa eyed the interaction with interest. 

“Ooo, who is he?” she asked.

“He’s a friend,” Zayn said, hoping that the next fifty questions she would ask did not involve any embarrassing topics about him. Not taking the risk, Zayn looked at his watch and realized that they needed to get to the food court in the next ten minutes. 

“We need to go,” he said to Safaa. He turned to Liam, “Would you mind showing us the food court?”

Liam nodded, “Sure, if you don’t mind giving me your number so that we can stay in touch. I figured that if we met at IKEA upon a chance, maybe we were meant to be friends.” Zayn had no idea what the relevance was but Liam’s charming words convinced his brain that the statement was  _very_  relevant. 

Safaa laughed, “Smooth.” For a kid, she was very clever. Luckily, she wasn’t Waliyha. 

Zayn laughed, “Alright,” he answered and Liam handed him his phone. Zayn typed in his number as they walked to the food court with Safaa in tow. They talked about a lot of things in the short journey from the bedroom area to the food court and Zayn felt like he and Liam clicked instantly and were best friends. When they arrived at the food court, Liam stated that he needed to get back to work before his manager fired him. 

“It was nice meeting you, Zayn,” Liam said, sincerely. 

“You too, Liam,” Zayn said back. Liam surprised him by giving the smaller lad a tight hug.

“Have a fun trip home, Zayn,” Liam whispered in his ear before pulling away. He started walking backwards to get to where he was heading. 

“I’ll try but I’ll miss you too much, Liam,” Zayn told him, waving at the boy. Liam waved back before jogging away. Zayn let out a sigh, immediately feeling empty. 

He turned and saw his sister giving him a sly grin. 

“Don’t say a word.”

**Author's Note:**

> Drop me a line and give me a kudos if you like it :)


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